The general appeared on “CBS This Morning” ahead of a meeting at the White House Friday between President Barack Obama and the Democratic and Republican congressional leadership.

Odierno said the Pentagon needs a set budget – not the so-called “continuing resolution”- to “protect our soldiers.”

“The cuts are disproportionately enacted on defense,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS. “What we are doing to the men and the women in the military is unconscionable,” he said. “They volunteered to serve. They don’t even know where they’re going to be next week.”

“We should not have waited” until the cuts were about to take effect to call people together to the White House, McCain said.